The present invention relates to heels for footwear.
With many articles of footwear when the back of the heel hits the ground as the wearer is walking along, the impact is sufficiently hard to jar the wearers own heel and possibly also the leg and consequently cause discomfort and unnecessary fatigue.
Various solutions have been proposed to this problem and have achieved a greater or lesser degree of acceptance.
The most common solution is to make the ground-engaging part of the heel of rubber. However the rubber must necessarily be fairly hard so that the heel does not wear down too quickly in use and consequently, the rubber is not particularly effective in absorbing the shock.
A further construction provides a heel incorporating a resilient insert, made for example of soft rubber, but although such a construction is more effective in absorbing shocks, it is found in practice such heels often have relatively poor wearing properties and therefore only a short life.
In another construction a metal spring element is incorporated in the heel, so that the spring is compressed by a wearer when walking as the heel hits the ground and thereby absorbs some of the shock.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved resilient heel structure having a high efficiency and a long life.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a heel for footwear which not only effectively absorbs shocks resulting from the impact of the back of the heel hitting the ground, but which is also constructed so as to result in a reduction in wear at the back of the heel, and at the same time provide improved walking characteristics.